While it may not have a world renowned car manufacturer to call its own, Russia is still keen to play a part in the green car race as indicated by the supervisory board of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies approving the state corporation’s participation in a project to manufacture lithium-ion batteries.
RusNano, which co-invests in nanotechnology industry projects, will team with China-based lithium-ion battery manufacturer Thunder Sky to manufacture the batteries in what is the first such project in Russia. Thunder Sky, which was founded in 1998, currently has two production lines with annual capacity of 60millionAh and at the end of this year it launched an additional fully automatic battery production line with a capacity of 100millionAh a year.
The batteries will primarily be used in electric vehicles, including buses and motorcycles, while Thunder Sky plans to buy a large part of the Russian factory’s products to fulfil contracts with Chinese producers of electric transport. It is expected that the Russian market will be targeted too, as demand in the country grows.
A plant will be built in Novosibirsk with four production lines from Thunder Sky. Capacity will be around 300millionAh annually when production begins in 2011, although this will rise to 400millionAh annually in 2012. RusNano itself will contribute 2.24billion rubles to the equity of the new company and extend a loan of up to 5.5billion rubles. Thunder Sky will match the 2.24billion investment with the external co-investor to loan 3.9billion rubles.
According to Sergei Polikarnov, RusNano managing director, manufacturing will be localised in Russia with Russian companies supplying raw materials. The endeavour will create 500 new jobs and contribute more than seven billion rubles in taxes to federal and regional budgets between 2010 and 2015.
